1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle lever switch device used as a turn signal switch, a wiper switch or the like for vehicles and in particular to an in-vehicle lever switch device having a rotating knob and a pressing knob in the vicinity of the distal end of a cylindrical lever body capable of a swing operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a type of in-vehicle lever switch device allows a cylindrical lever body to protrude from a housing fixed to a steering column and the like, is capable of a swing operation within two operating surfaces which are substantially orthogonal to each other, and a rotating knob and a pressing knob exposed in the vicinity of the distal end of the cylindrical lever body are respectively and independently operable. Then, the swing operation with respect to the cylindrical lever body enables a turn signal switch or a wiper switch to be turned on, for example. In addition, through a rotating operation of the rotating knob along the plane orthogonal to the axial direction of the cylindrical lever body or through a pressing operation of the pressing knob along the axial direction, it is possible to turn on a fog lamp switch or a rear wiper switch. If the rotating knob and the pressing knob are arranged in the vicinity of the distal end of the cylindrical lever body in this manner, multiple types of accurate input operation can be easily performed and thereby multiple functions of the lever switch device can be easily achieved.
Generally, in such a type of in-vehicle lever switch device, the outline of the cylindrical lever body is substantially circular when viewed in a cross section, and the outline of the rotating knob or the pressing knob is also substantially circular in a cross-sectional view (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-200018). A support member is integrally mounted on the cylindrical lever body and the support member supports the rotating knob or the pressing knob in a state where the respective operations thereof are available. That is, one or two support members fixed to the cylindrical lever body restrain the reciprocation while rotatably supporting the rotating knob and restrain the rotation while supporting the pressing knob to enable the reciprocation. In addition, a rotary switch mechanism capable of detecting the rotating operation with respect to the rotating knob, a push switch mechanism (or a slide switch mechanism) capable of detecting the pressing operation with respect to the pressing knob or the like is incorporated in the cylindrical lever body.
Incidentally, from a different viewpoint owing to an enhanced design of an in-vehicle lever switch device, it has been recently required that the outline of cylindrical lever body, a rotating knob and a pressing knob exposed in the vicinity of the distal end is configured to be non-circular (for example, a flat shape) when viewed in a cross section. However, such a configuration has not yet been put to practical use.